Dear Mr Radmehrian,
I thank you for your passionate arguments in favour of
the Palestinian cause however I will like to elaborate
a little further if that may help to clear some
aspects of my article!
You have mis-interpreted the gist of my article. It was not
a treatise on the wrongdoings of the Israelis or the
Palestinians; it took a decidedly neutral stance on
that conflict. It only highlighted the ineffectual
leadership of the Palestinians and that of the Arab
world in general and the infeasibility of their
policies. It intended to trace the route of the
suicide bombing its wastefulness and its inhuman side (which shall be done in the next
article) and raised some poignant issues not
considered by the mainstream participants in the
conflict of the Levant.
On your comments < the one reality that drives this
whole mess
in the Middle Eastern conflict is "occupation".>
I think lets look at the history little objectively.
Britain, unable and unwilling to continue its
governance of Palestine, requested the United Nations
to take steps to resolve the communal conflict between
Palestinians and Zionists. In 1947, the United Nations
General Assembly resolved, by a two-thirds majority,
to endorse the partition of Palestine into a Jewish
and an Arab state (Resolution No. 181). Israel and its
supporters say that the Palestinian rejection of the
Partition Plan in 1947 was tantamount to their
forfeiture of any future claim to Palestine. Now if
this is forced occupation, I think we need to condemn
the UN General Assembly resolution and not any one else for creation of Israel.
Now the religious issue as far what God promised Jews
and what Allah promised Muslims are little complicated
things outside the mortal comprehension of man like
me. These are issue that resides in dark era of human
history. I like to take references and learn from our
past mistakes to make corrective measures for future.
The disagreements range from the nature of British
mandate over Palestine and it is said that it was not
ownership; they had no legitimate basis to dispose of
it. Therefore state of Israel has no moral or legal
legitimacy. Its instigation in 1948 was based on
scheming and political machination however the
Palestinians forget completely to mention the United
Nations General Assembly resolved, by a two-thirds
majority, to endorse the partition of Palestine into a
Jewish and an Arab state (Resolution No. 181). They
keep harping the same old script that the impetus for
the reestablishment of Israel was the Russian pogroms
of the late 19th and early 20th century. The final
impetus was the holocaust in Europe. I am not here
building a case that who occupied what but if we go by
how nations are made and destroyed, UN and League of
Nations mandates during htis cnetury have been very important. We cannotoverlook the basis of the recent creation of Israelthrough a 2/3rd mandated UN General Assembly resolution.
The very reason that you overlook this fact and call Israeli land as occupied is self-denial of ground reality.
Since 1948 war after war imposed by ineffective Arabs
lost every time huge chunk of territory. These wars
created more refuges amongst the territories newly
occupied as spoils of war. Now in war and gambling
game of roulette once you are loser the winner takes
the spoils and the bets of losers goes higher.
My article deals with habit of losing that becomes a part
of some nation consciousness, becoming a habitual loser
is quite enigmatic. I concede that the actual
accomplishment of the establishing of the modern
bigger state of Israel after 1948 war and ‘economic
boycott’ was based purely and simply on superior
military force. More bombs, more tanks, more aircraft
and better military tactics. I argue that national
self-realisation of adversary strength should lead to
realistic objectives.
Israel's claim that since the Palestinians rejected
the partition resolution it therefore has is a claim
devoid of any legal foundations. Israel by wining the
wars called the expanded territories as spoils of war.
Now, I hate ot condone the spoils of war analogy but I
do profess that at certain times in life of nations,
self reflection and self assessment of their strength
and weaknesses is very important, the failure to do so
leads to one way street of destruction unfortunately
Palestinians and their Arab brethren never did that
self appraisal.
My whole notion has been that the Palestinian
leadership could have maintained more pragmatic
relationship knowing that more than 400,000
Palestinians still lived in 1947 mandated territories
by UN to Israel. By imposing a war they could not be
won not once in 1948, 1967 and 1973 they lost the
umpteenth opportunity to create confidence and trust
with the Jews, which is and was the requirement of the
day. They are as human and as loving as we all are,
ask the Bosnians Muslims and Albanian Muslims in
recent Serbian based aggression, the Jews of the world
did more for their survival than all of the 1.23
billon people efforts put together.
The Palestinian continue to claim their ancestry to
Abraham as the basis of their right of refusal to
accept the partition, the others find equally strong
pedigree to claim their roots from. However, permanent
state of war breed hatred and once hatred and venom
comes in to play between relationships of nations
things intensify. I am unable to adjudicate between
historical arguments with God prescribed texts and
Allah authenticated verdicts, those are impossible to
resolve, the very reason that it all got so messed up
was that Palestinians being Arab speaking were
encouraged by Arabs like Iraqi, Syrians and others to
be used as cannon fodder. Their own leadership played
a dirty role undoubtedly but if they would have
pragmatically looked at their weaknesses and tried
peace the two people nearly a distant cousins could
have been great neighbours. The very venom cultivated and very effort to implant seed to destroy Israel has caused irreparable damage to the Palestinian cause.
The Arab-Israeli war of 1948took away the rights of the Palestinians and provided the excuse to Israel to expand. I think that this verythinking of every Muslim thinks that he does no wrong and history has been unfair to him perhaps is theself-pity that keeps self-destruction the biggest game in the town unfortunately.
Regarding the assimilation of the Palestinians in
their new homes, I only mentioned that it was curious
as to why the Palestinians could not integrate into
the nations occupied by the kinsmen. Population
transfers have been a hallmark of the previous century and in fact the Palestinians would’ve been able to be absorbed with great ease in the Arab states, due to the similarity
in language, custom and religion. The fact remains
that the Palestinian struggle would have been in no way
undermined if they were made citizens of their host
countries, instead it would have been strengthened, as
they would have had a stronger economic and social
base with which to carry out their resistance.
Your analogy between the Palestinians situation and
the Federation’s antagonism to the Borg is spurious.
My progeny are tremendous fans of Star Trek and as a
result I am acquainted with the species Borg. The Borg
are senseless assimilators, whose ambitions are bent
on Galactic conquest. They have no ability to
rationalise and share no common ground with the human
species, which is why the Federation has consistently
maintained its hostile attitude towards the Borg. I
would also like to remind that when the opportunity
arose to negotiate with the Borg, the Star Trek
“Voyager” did so in order to preserve itself.
I do not wish to discuss the psyche driving “aliyah”
however it would stand to reason that the continued
feature of anti Semitism in nearly every country in
the world was a driving factor in establishing a
Jewish haven, based on the historic reality of Israel.
This in no way validates their seizure of Palestinian
land nonetheless the Palestinians rejected every
proposal in order to pursue idealistic, and not to
mention unpractical, dreams. I would like to pose a
counter-question to you! Now that Jewish immigrants
have successfully settled Israel what is your solution
to this pressing dilemma, expel every Jewish person from
the Levant?
You astutely state that “In addition to the
frustration stemming from occupation, there is the
huge problem of mistreatment, economic injustice,
prejudicial treatment by the administrative and
governmental entities, unfair water rights and usage,
unfair educational opportunities and many other facts
on the ground that have led to the frustration and
suffocation of the Palestinians into the current
rage.” The economic, social and administrative failure
is directly sourced to the failure of the Palestinian
leadership, throughout every generation since the
Jewish settlement of the historic Palestine, to accept
the current political reality and adjust their
policies accordingly, which was the underlying message
in my article in the Iranian.com.
You subliminally attempt the justify the current wave
of suicide bombing by comparing the settlements, of
the occupied territories by the Israelis, to that of a
hypothetical colonisation, of European lands by the
Nazis Germans, and I personally find that quite
astonishing. Israel, despite its many shortcomings, is
a democratic state and the Palestinian cause could
revert to that of a peaceful movement without being
repressed. Under Nazi totalitarianism, no dissent was
tolerated especially from the “non-Germanic inferior”
nations or their citizens. Thus there would have been
no other recourse but opposition through violence!
My narration of Granada’s fall is very effective in
illustrating the danger of a leadership remaining
under a delusion of greatness and invincibility, that
is what I see in Palestinian polity, failure to adept
to ground realities that what was the fault of the
last Umayyad of Granada. The fall of Granada was of
such import that even after 700 years of Muslim rule
not only Muslim principality remained in the Iberian
Peninsula. The obstinacy of the Palestinians could
very well mean the mutual destruction of the all
parties concerned in the Middle East and that of a
habitable West Asia.
I thank you for your letter and your well thought-out
opinions but my raison d’etre still stands and my
article remains germane as a guide to the unsettling
events in the Middle East. Regards Iqbal Latif.
=====
Iqbal Latif (Ike) |
